An initiate, Dallion kept telling himself.

Up till now, he always believed the title to be reserved for the Order of the Seven Moons. The first instance he had heard of it was when the Archduke’s envoy had come to Dherma village, gathering volunteers for a hunt. The second was when Euryale had addressed one of the battle clerics they had recently come across. Back then, Dallion thought that the gorgon was being respectful. In reality, she was reminding him that they held the same awakened rank. What really had blown Dallion’s mind, however, was the revelation that so many of his acquaintances were in fact initiates: all the hunters, all the elites, lieutenants, and captains of the Icepicker guild… actually, all the guilds were probably the same. It was little wonder that the cities had impressed Dallion’s grandfather as well as the former village chief—they were both magnificent and terrifying places. It was well known that Neorsal had thousands of awakened. However, it also had hundreds of people who had the power to fight monsters of the wilderness, not to mention make their own emblems.

I’ll make a model of the place, Gen said from within Dallion’s realm. You can use it to move stuff around when you’re here.

Sure, Dallion replied.

While the new gate allowed Dallion to transform and modify his realm as he saw fit, the same didn’t go for his echoes. As Nil shared, now that Dallion was allowed to hear, echoes only retained those skills and abilities of their original that were available at the point of creation. That stood to reason, but it also meant that for the more major things within his realm, Dallion couldn’t rely on them.

Just give me a while to get used to the notion. I haven’t brought the news to Eury yet.

I know what you know, remember? Gen laughed. Don’t worry, your realm will be here when you’re ready.

The joke wasn’t even particularly good, but it made Dallion smile. Going through the gate had not only changed his perspective of the world, it had also made all the fears and concerns evaporate. It was natural to feel powerful after each awakened gate, but this time Dallion felt especially so. From here on, he was strong enough not to rely on the Moons for every little thing. He could also get back to leveling up his skills now that he had a new level cap.

Dallion trembled, with excitement the entire way back to Euryale’s workshop. Every few steps he felt like jumping on the roof of a building and shouting for all to hear that he had become an initiate. In fact, he had done just that through one of his combat splitting instances. He had no idea what the results were—he didn’t have the mental stamina to maintain the length of his combat splitting for that long—but even so, Dallion had enough of self-preservation instincts not to try and find out. At least not yet.

An unusual smell greeted him the moment he approached the workshop’s door. It wasn’t a bad smell, quite on the contrary, based on the nuances in the aroma, Dallion could tell that someone had gone through a lot of trouble to make a particularly appealing feast. The only issue was that the someone in question couldn’t be Euryale. The gorgon had many positive qualities, but gourmet cooking wasn’t something she enjoyed or bothered doing.

It's about time you got here, the guardian of the building said. She’s been waiting for you.

I know. And I’m sure she knows I’m here already. Dallion grabbed the handle. Anything you can tell me about what’s going on inside?

Can’t do that. I promised I’d keep it a secret.

Dallion shook his head. He never thought he’d see the day when buildings would refuse to tell him what was going on, because they were part of his surprise party.

“Hey,” Dallion said as he entered.

Initially, he was expecting to see a crowd of people—possibly Jiroh among others. Instead, the only person in the room was his girlfriend. He could feel a sense of pride coming emanating from her, along with the usual affections.

“You’re not wearing your blocker,” he said, somewhat surprised.

“I’ll put it on later,” the gorgon said with a sly smile. “For now, I thought I’d let you enjoy seeing some emotions while we eat.”

Dallion was left completely speechless. This was quite the gesture on her part. The workbench was meticulously cleaned and mended, and covered with a vast assortment of food that could only have come from one place to Neorsal.

“No need to look so glum,” Eury said. “Like I said, I thought you deserve a break now and then.”

That much was true, although Dallion had been getting a lot of them lately. The last few weeks were comparable to the time he had first arrived at Nerosal. Of course, this time he had to work a bit more for his gains.

Carefully, Dallion removed his gear, placing it on a few of the shelves, then joined Eury at the workbench. The food tasted even better than usual, possibly because Dallion had increased his perception since the last time he had eaten. Eury’s unadulterated company was also a blessing. In that short sliver of time, there weren’t hunters, heroes, or even awakened, but just a young couple enjoying a meal. For once, the world didn’t matter.

The conversation revolved around trivialities, sometimes veering off towards forging, tools, and armor. Now and again an item guardian would join in with a comment, though even that was rarer than usual. As Dallion had noticed, not all guardians were able to talk to one another. Some—mostly the non-banished ones—weren’t able or willing to talk at all. In this case, most of them knew better than to interrupt the special moment.

It took less than an hour for the food to vanish, mostly consumed by Dallion. The conversation, however, continued up till first light. Only then did the world remind them of its existence in the form of a brief visit from the city guard. The guardsman never came in. Aware of the importance of the mini-power couple, he stood outside, hastily handing a sealed scroll to Eury when she had answered the door, then left on his way.

“Work?” Dallion asked as the gorgon broke the seal.

“The overseer wants me to explore a new section of the underground ruins,” Eury said, skimming through the scroll. “There still are a few cultists in the city, it seems, and she wants to be sure there isn’t a repeat of last time.”

“Need any help from me?”

“No, it’s an easy task. I’m just one of the people she actually trusts to do it. With everyone else involved in one way or another, a hunter is the best solution. Nothing for you to worry about.”

That made sense, if it weren’t for the fact that she was hiding something. Dallion couldn’t feel any fear coming from her, but an unusual amount of hatred flashed through her, if only for a second.

“Any news on Jiroh?” he asked.

“Yes, and no. A messenger came from Halburn. She’s gone north for a job. No details, so I expect it’s connected to her home. Either that or she’s been roped into some task for someone important. Wouldn’t be the first time it has happened. Bottom line is she’ll be away for a few more weeks.”

For some reason, the news made Dallion feel slightly down. He had hoped that the fury would be back soon, so they could set off on the next trip. As good as things had been, staying in Nerosal was starting to get on his nerves again.

“I also got a new hunter request,” the gorgon went on. “There’s been sightings of an avian crackling in the region east of the city. It seems to be a young creature, so the countess hasn’t sent out troops so far. I think this’ll be a good opportunity for you.”

Dallion’s heart skipped a beat. This was what he had been waiting for: his second chance at a solo hunt, and one right up his wheelhouse. Avian cracklings were, in general, quite rare. Dallion had seen entire swarms of them during his expedition in the world sword back when he was a member of the icepicker guild, but that wasn’t the real world. Out in the wilderness, the monsters knew better than straying too close to the Moons. Even so, every now and again, something would appear that ignored common conventions and had to be dealt with.

“If I beat it, can I keep it?” Dallion asked.

“Sure, as long as the overseer doesn’t see any harm.”

“Is she the client?”

“No.” Eury said, indicating this wasn’t a matter she was willing to discuss.

“When do I set off?”

“Anytime you want, although I’d prefer if it’s tomorrow morning. I want you a bit for myself tonight.”

That was an offer Dallion found he couldn’t refuse. Besides, it was going to take him at least half a day to prepare for the trip. Eury slipped on her blocking ring, then took some light combat gear and went to deal with the overseer’s issues.

Alone again, Dallion spent a dozen hours in an item to get some sleep, then left as well to stock up on supplies he would need for the trip. Given the nature of the creature and the vagueness surrounding its whereabouts, he found it was prudent to get enough for a full month in the wilderness. When travelling, water was the greatest issue. Being an awakened, Dallion could easily hunt for food, but water was never a certainty. The villages he was going to visit certainly were going to have enough to share, but he needed something to drink until he got there.

It took Dallion several hours to buy the equipment he thought necessary for his trip. With the rumors of tensions between the empire and a few other kingdoms, most of the gear necessary for outside travel was bought out by merchants or soldiers assigned to the new Nerosal garrisons. What was left was of poor quality, and required a lot of running around to get. Fortunately, Dallion wasn’t worried about the quality; all he needed to do was mend and potentially improve an item once or twice to get it in a good enough state for travel.

Another chunk of true time was spent in the ring library, where Dallion went through all available information regarding avian cracklings. Outside of the creature’s rare occurrence, there was quite a lot on the creature’s habits. Apparently, at some point in the past, a flock of such crackligns had caused ruin, famine, and devastation in an entire province on the empire, to the point that the imperial legions had to get personally involved. The Archduke who had allowed the disaster to occur was quickly deprived of his title, status, and name, not to mention he had been placed in a prison item for twenty years. Given the devastation described, though, Dallion thought that the noble in question had gotten it easy.

The avians were indeed capable of massive destruction, not because they were particularly cunning or vicious, but rather to their nature. As any bird, it was normal for them to perch on anything of interest. Due to the nature of their talons, however, the unfortunate structures they perched upon had the tendency to crack up and crumble soon after, forcing the bird to find a new perch and thus continue the devastation.

I know you’ve set your mind on it, but I think it would be better not turning one of those into a familiar, Nil said.

Why? Are you afraid it’ll cause too much havoc in my realm?

I’m rather terrified at the notion of a crackling cat constantly chasing after a crackling bird. You were fortunate that Lux was too different for Nox to show any interest. If you bring another of his kind, however… things might be less peaceful.

On cue, a meow suggested that was exactly what would happen.

Alright, I get the idea, Dallion chuckled. There won’t be another crackling. Happy?

Quite. I’d be more pleased if you had turned down the task, however.

Don’t you start as well. I can handle this!

I’m sure you could handle most things. However, for an avian to have emerged in the open, it must be confident that it’s capable of handling anything the wilderness throws at it, including awakened soldiers. There’s no doubt it isn’t as powerful as the specimens that caused blights throughout entire provinces, but if it were a mere nuisance, the requests for help wouldn’t have reached the second capital of the county. Keep that in mind.